On November 18, amidst proud parents, friends and the Engineering community, 20 undergraduate and 366 graduate students made their way across the stage at Convocation Hall to receive their engineering degrees.
See the day in action:
Before cities can construct a new school, highway overpass or even an airport tower, they need the expertise of structural engineers—that’s where William (Jun) Luo (CivE 1T2, MASc 1T4) and his passion for concrete come in.
Luo graduated this month with a master’s in civil engineering—one of 386 engineering students who received a degree this fall.
Working with supervisor Professor Frank Vecchio (CivE), his graduate research focused on understanding and experimentally verifying the seismic behaviour of high-performance, steel fibre-reinforced concrete.
“The experimental data from this [research] will be important, as available literature in this area is limited,” said Luo, who also completed his civil engineering undergrad degree at U of T.
Luo’s desire to become a structural engineer was cemented in Professor Vechio’s third-year course on reinforced concrete design, where Luo later became a teaching assistant.
He credit’s U of T’s new Structural Testing Laboratory as a crucial reason he chose to complete his MASc at U of T Engineering: “The [lab] is widely recognized as one of the best such facilities in North America. It provided me with the tools, machines and technology necessary for producing high-quality experimental data.”
Now a structural engineer-in-training (EIT) at an engineering startup firm in Central Alberta, Luo is working on designs and 3D modelling of dozens of commercial, industrial and residential buildings across Alberta.
“I find my work meaningful knowing that the structures I helped to design will be around and safe for many generations to come,” he said. “It’s a great feeling to stroll through the highway and see these buildings standing and occupied.”
See this month’s other graduating students in our Convocation Fall 2014 photo gallery.
With files from Jelena Damjanovic.
Engineering a surface that is so slippery even geckos can’t stick to it may sound like a fun science fair project.
But new surface-coating technology developed by materials science and engineering professor Ben Hatton (MSE), together with colleagues at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute, does just that—and its slick properties have the potential to save lives.
Published recently in Nature Biotechnology, Hatton’s innovative design prevents blood from clotting on medical devices such as catheters, dialysis equipment and heart-lung machines, which is a common problem and can be dangerous.
Blood clotting is an important process in your body where platelets and proteins in the blood aggregate to seal a wound. However, blood also clots on foreign objects in the body, like catheter tubing, and this clotting can cause blockage of flow or blood clots flowing elsewhere in the body.
To counteract these negatives, doctors and nurses often give patients blood thinners, but these medications can be difficult for those who are elderly, sick or severely wounded.
The new coating developed by Professor Hatton and his colleagues could eliminate the need for blood thinners by matching perfluorcarbons—a liquid that is chemically similar to Teflon—to a uniquely engineered surface. The result is an ultra-low adhesion, slippery material that repels blood, stopping the clotting process before it even starts.
“Making an inert surface for blood contact is really a huge benefit for a wide range of medical procedures—we really just want blood to ignore that surface and not clot,” said Professor Hatton in a recent CBC Radio Quirks & Quarks interview. (Listen here)
To demonstrate this, the research team tested the coating on over 20 different medical surfaces and with in vivo tests. The results were promising: much less blood clot formation for the eight hour duration of the experiments, without the use of blood thinners.
In addition to blood, Hatton’s technology has also shown to have profound antimicrobial applications—if liquids can’t stick to it, it turns out bacteria have a hard time as well.
“Most antimicrobial materials function by releasing a chemical that kills bacteria on contact,” said Hatton, explaining that some bacteria become resistant to these products.
“Our approach is different in that the surface of the material is just too slippery for bacteria to adhere to, so no chemical release may be needed.”
Aside from blood and bacteria, the Harvard research team also brought a gecko into the lab to test the coating’s slippery potential. The gecko— a creature whose footpads are known for their ability to scale smooth walls and stick to almost any material—was also unable to get a grip, sliding off when tilted.
“I think this is going to make everybody’s life a whole lot easier in the medical community and for patients as well,” said Professor Hatton. “Everyone but geckos, that is.”
Originally published in the autumn 2014 issue of U of T Magazine.
Things move quickly in Professor Steven Thorpe’s fourth-year engineering design course. At one desk, students are building a model fuel cell. At another, they are conducting research online while jotting down formulae and diagrams.
But with a physical space that isn’t conducive to collaborative learning, Thorpe’s hands-on assignments don’t work as well as they could. “I liken my role to the conductor of an orchestra with many moving parts,” said Thorpe. “The pace is dynamic, but the physical environment is not.”
Creating new spaces amenable to active learning (in contrast to traditional lecture-centric classrooms) is part of a recent pedagogical shift in engineering education. The aim, said Thorpe, is to encourage intentional thinking about the activities in the tutorials, rather than relying on passive note-taking which often results in poor information retention. “Ultimately it means a whole new way to teach and learn,” he said.
The new Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CEIE) at the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering is U of T’s response to the sweeping changes taking place in engineering teaching and learning. The building will include dynamic and flexible environments that break down artificial barriers between teacher and student, fostering collaboration and encouraging active learning and accelerated innovation.
The centre will feature six Technology Enhanced Active Learning (TEAL) rooms, including one funded by a donation from members of the Faculty’s Singapore Malaysia alumni group.
“TEAL rooms will be critical to supporting the design work that has become integral to engineering courses,” said Thorpe. The rooms feature movable chairs and counter-height group tables serviced by multiple screens that allow for a variety of configurations and easy movement. State-of-the-art screens will surround the room so that they are accessible to every student.
Donor profile: Singapore Malaysia Alumni Group
As a graduate student at U of T Engineering in the 1960s, C.K. Chang (MechE MEng 6T8) studied fluid dynamics and other subjects in a typical classroom, with the lecturer at the front of the room, talking to students sitting in rows. When Dean Cristina Amon shared plans for the CEIE during a visit to Singapore, Chang was impressed—especially by the innovative TEAL rooms.
“I am sure I speak for others of my generation when I say I wish we could have studied in such classrooms,” said Chang. “The design is perfectly suited for engineering design work and for the important collaboration that takes place in the classroom.”
Chang, an active leader with the Faculty’s Singapore Malaysia alumni group, mobilized a diverse group of alumni from academe, government and corporate sectors in the region to raise funds for a TEAL room in the new building. They beat their goal by 20 per cent and the room will be named the Singapore Malaysia Alumni Room in their honour.
“We see the TEAL rooms as almost a lab unto themselves where teaching happens and new ideas are generated, debated, prioritized and executed by students,” said Chang. “This is how it happens in the modern working world, so why not train students to develop these skills from the outset.”
How does an engineer write a novel? He builds a blueprint first, of course.
That’s exactly what trained engineer and award-winning writer Terry Fallis does, designing complex characters caught in layered plotlines and meticulously mapping out chapter after chapter. Even though he’s never worked as a formal engineer, he thinks the engineer’s way of doing things is his secret to success.
On November 6, the author of The Best Laid Plans, in which an engineering professor runs for Parliament to avoid teaching English to first-year engineering students,shared his fascinating career story with U of T Engineering. His message: no matter where your career takes you, an engineering degree will be of service and in demand.
“I’m not so much a novelist as I am an engineer who writes novels,” said Fallis, whose roller coaster career includes success as a political strategist, public affairs consultant and a best-selling novelist.
The hilarious lunchtime talk, hosted by the Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering (ILead), drew a diverse crowd of students, faculty and staff from across the Faculty interested in learning more about unconventional engineering pathways.
How could an engineering education prepare you to be an author?
Mr. Fallis hears this question all the time. He recalled a book signing wherein a woman, upon seeing the author’s iron ring, was in disbelief that an engineer could possibly write a good novel. He set the record straight:
“I could not have written that novel or any of my novels were I not an engineer. The methodological approach to problem-solving, the discipline, the work ethic, the analytical skills, the innate curiosity I think engineers are blessed with—these are all extraordinarily valuable in whatever career you’ve chosen,” Fallis said.
On why he feels engineers should be open to exploring career opportunities off the beaten track, Fallis maintains that, “anything that broadens our perspective or gives us a different look at another part of society, I think, would inform engineers’ careers.”
Canada Research Chair Professor Aimy Bazylak (MIE) sat in the first row at the event to hear insights on being an engineer and an author.
“I am often telling students that their engineering training gives them tools to learn and that what you can do with an engineering degree is really unlimited,” said Bazylak. “Terry is a wonderful example of someone who used their foundational engineering training to support an extremely successful and unique career path.”
Learn more about writer Terry Fallis.
Torontonians have a lot more than patience to lose while sitting in gridlock.
According to a recent Global News story, congestion costs the GTA more than $6 billion a year in lost wages, wasted time and fuel. The price tag associated with getting from point A to B in Canada’s largest city is staggering.
But our smartphones may offer hope.
Sean Rathwell, partner and vice president of integrated mobility at MMM Group Limited, a community planning and infrastructure design firm, believes that one viable solution to our travel woes lies in dynamic, navigation-based mobile app technology. The app will route and re-route an individual using various modes of travel—cars, bikes, private and public transportation—based on real-time traffic reports, wait times and service availability.
“All of that can be done today but nobody has brought it all together yet,” Rathwell said. “And nobody is trying to figure out how to do that kind of dynamic management, looking for your problems along the way. To me, that is the future.”
He said that the app will also be capable of far more than providing just transit options. It will even allow you to reserve parking spots, swipe in and out of parking lots and even coordinate parcel deliveries directly to your car. He said there will likely be a reward system tied into the app, providing users with free coffee coupons as a thank-you for taking sustainable modes of transportation on their commute.
Rathwell was part of a panel of industry experts who gathered in Toronto on October 29 for The 3rd Urban Revolution: Re-thinking the Future of Transportation. The event, which was an installment of U of T Engineering’s ongoing BizSkule speaker series, provided a platform to present attainable solutions to an ongoing challenge.
According to Rathwell, Toronto is highly respected in North America for its accomplishments in all modes of transportation, including cycling and walking. At the same time, there is a structure in place in Toronto that makes it difficult to move forward.
“A lot of the decisions end up being political,” he said.
“We’ve rested on our laurels,” said second panelist Marcy Burchfield, executive director at Neptis Foundation, a charitable foundation that specializes in research, analysis and mapping related to the design and function of Canadian urban regions. “We have had the growth but we haven’t necessarily maintained the infrastructure to support it.”
As director of international government relations at Lyft, a San Francisco-based peer-to-peer ridesharing company, Michael Masserman, the evening’s third panelist, spends a lot of time speaking with city officials about how they can improve mobility. He said he’s often faced with a segregated outlook on different areas of transport instead of thinking about bike and car sharing, public transportation and taxi services as being part of the same network.
“It’s the responsibility of those who are planning our cities now to understand that it’s a broader ecosystem,” said Masserman, “and to think about how to invest in all these different modes of transportation.”
“The Industrial Revolution brought us mechanized transportation for the first time, the second revolution came with the automobile and I would argue that we desperately need a third revolution in terms of how we think of transportation,” said moderator Eric Miller, U of T civil engineering professor, transportation expert and alumnus. “But I’m optimistic that we are on the cusp of redefining mobility in the city.”
Find out more about U of T Engineering’s Bizskule speaker series.